When I think of police procedural movie sequels, I think it’s best summed up by Ice Cube in 22 Jump Street; “It’s the same case: do the same thing!” Zootopia 2 is honestly almost the same situation; Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde are still not respected within the cop community. Yet, this comes after everything they’ve done for Zootopia in the first movie, they’re still not actually respected. Sure it feels perfectly in character for Judy and Nick to screw everything up, but to suspend them and have them hunted as criminals on the run for a majority of the movie really feels like a big stretch and undermines what has happened in the previous movie.

This isn’t really an original story, it’s just a do over of the previous one. We see the snake in all the promotional material for this movie, and he is barely present until the third act. We don’t even get too much of a check-in on what his personality is by the end. While Zootopia barely pulled off having a twist villain, this movie decided to copy the predecessor and decided to do a twist villain again, and this time it is somehow even more obvious from his first scene, as we are introduced to a random character.

Personally, I think they made the wrong decision with this it barely affected the movie aside from creating an action scene in the climax that really could have been executed by any character. As far as twist endings go villains go, this one felt just plain unnecessary, because it was re-tooling the lesson that Judy Hopps learned in the previous movie from the other twist villain. They try to turn this back by making it about how Judy and the villain are both overlooked in their community, but it felt like too much like Bellwether’s motive in Zootopia. 

I still appreciate the messages that were in the movie. This movie has a great resolution with Judy and Nick learning to properly communicate with one another, which is a pretty important life lesson. While I’m sure it wasn’t intentional, the plight of the reptiles’ role in Zootopia was pretty similar to the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. It also helps that reptiles are a terrific addition to the Zootopia lore, especially seeing the Basilisk lizard using its real-world ability to run on water.

The reptiles are part of the plethora of great animal sight gags that are included with this movie. I feel that people who loved the prequel for its world will absolutely love seeing more of Zootopia. The only minor gripe I have about it would the scene that takes place during Burning Mammal. Burning Man Jokes were kind of done to death 20 years ago, and making them animals doesn’t really help.

While I feel like a lot of these Disney sequels haven’t really lived up to their predecessors, I’ve never been one to really object to them too much, because they still managed to tell an original story. This one also doesn’t live up to its prior film; however, it feels like all the effort and passion in the first movie is still present. The musical score by Michael Giacchino has a strong presence that is perfectly reflected in the movie. All the voice talent is terrifically cast as well. I’m most happy to hear Patrick Warburton doing a voice role in a movie for the first time in years. I honestly think his character, Mayor Brian Windancer, would not work if not for his perfect comedic timing. I certainly hope this performance can also fast-track Warburton into getting a Disney Legends Award

I may not have cared too much for the plot of this movie, but there is a strong creative presence in the Zootopia universe for that I must recommend it. At first, it may appear to be a close retread, but the amount of care, effort, and detail that’s put into this world is just too good not to check out.

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